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Classic role-playing-game, Baldur’s Gate, has topped a poll of some of the leading figures in the gaming industry, to be named WGE’s No.1 game of all-time.

The World Gaming Executives network sought the views of more than 1000 developers and gaming executives for the poll, the results of which are published in the first ever edition of the WGE Magazine, which is available for digital download from worldgamingexecutives.com.

The Baldur’s Gate series was developed by Canadian developers Bioware and was first released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game was a critical and financial success on release and is credited by many as reviving the RPG genre in gaming. As well as spawning three further Baldur’s Gate titles, the game set the standard for many other productions which used the advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules in video games.

Baldur’s Gate beat several other RPGs and gaming classics to top the poll, which also included many contemporary classics of the modern gaming era including the recently released Batman Arkham Asylum.

Speaking about the list, freelance design consultant and former UI Director of Bizarre Creations, Gary Hall said: “The list is a little surprising, but I loved playing almost all of these games. ‘Curse of Monkey Island’ was one of the major contributing factors to my wanting to make games for a living. Its storytelling and puzzles were second to none. Tomb Raider is also on the list, a game which, as far as I am concerned, rewrote the rules for game development.”

WGE Director John Armstrong said: “Many of the developers we polled got all misty-eyed as they thought back to the games of their youth, games which clearly influenced them into wanting to make a career in the gaming industry.

“These are the games which the developers of today grew up with and I think that’s why games such as Baldur’s Gate featured so largely in the voting.

“We expected that there would be quite a few contemporary titles on the list, people clearly enjoying the current games on the market. It’ll be interesting to see if those titles stand the test of time and feature on a similar poll in 20 years time.”

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